Educational set-up

To improve the sound connection between the telescope and the `class room' set-up in the Service Building the system has been changed to unidirectional broadcasting of the sound from the control room to the service building and a `chat-room' system (microphone plus head phone) for direct communication to avoid feedback problems when using an open bidirectional system.

Included in the facilities for courses we now provide a full set of 12 laptops for the students. These are offered with a common `standard' installation on a Linux platform. In principle this includes all basic astronomy reduction and analysis packages, but the specific installation can be adapted for each course.

A lot of experience in organizing and hosting observing courses have been gained over the past years, while also the facilities and infrastructure at the observatory has been developed and optimized for educational use. A document was prepared that gives an overview of what is offered to groups that want to use the NOT for an observational course and provide general guide lines which describes the various steps in the preparation, including specific suggestions for the organizers of such a course.